A RELATIVELY CALM SHAMBHALA

Traffic violations and drug possession were two of the main issues
RCMP dealt with over the weekend as 10,000 festival-goers rolled
through the area for the Shambhala Music Festival.

"Whenever you have a large number of people getting together there is
the potential for problems," said Nelson RCMP staff sergeant Dan Seibel.

"I was up at the site on Friday and did a walk through with security
and the people were very mellow. I didn't notice as many people who
appeared under the influence of drugs and alcohol compared to last
year, but again who knows whether it was the timing of things, it was
earlier in the day, perhaps the majority of the people that were there
at the time weren't using drugs, or perhaps the people that were there
were non-drug users, I don't know."

Seibel said the main goal of the RCMP going into the Shambhala weekend
was to keep people safe in town and on the roads.

"The bottom line is that there were no fatalities," he
said.

The RCMP issued 52 violation tickets to people not wearing seatbelts
and 13 violations to drivers without insurance.

"In this day and age driving a vehicle on the roadway, that's a lot of
people not wearing seatbelts," said Seibel.

He said roadside alcohol-related suspensions were also
high.

"People know that police are going to be there but for some reason
still continue to commit offenses," said Seibel.

The Salmo RCMP detachment is recommending charges for eight separate
counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of
trafficking.

"The quantity that the individual had was not deemed to support a
personal habit, and they might have other equipment like scales,
capsules that would be used in selling and trafficking in drugs," said
Seibel.

The security staff at Shambhala were also instrumental in searching
vehicles as they entered the site.

"I think last year was the first time that we worked closely with the
security where they were conscious of searching vehicles, and because
it's private property they have the right to search vehicles for
alcohol weapons or drugs. There was a large number of seizures last
year and we were down this year," he said.

Seibel thinks some people may have heard about the RCMP road checks
and the security checks on site and may have decided it wasn't worth
the risk.

"I don't know if you can compare it to fishing, but the humans are a
little smarter than fish, they hear over the past year of our efforts,
so they aren't going to bring in as large a number of drugs, or they
know they are going to get checked so they aren't going to bring in
any drugs at all. So numbers would be down because of our proactive
efforts last year."

Seibel said there were incidents that occurred related to problems
people brought with them to Shambhala.

"There was one incident of an ex-boyfriend finding the ex-girlfriend
and assaulting her in her tent and keeping her forcefully confined,"
he said. "Individuals come from all over and their history and
background come with them. If there are conditions of non-contact or
no communication and they choose to breach that at the Shambhala site
or in town, then we have to deal with that."

The RCMP meets with the organizers of Shambhala several times
throughout the year, and Seibel said they have a strong background and
training.

"Some of them are involved in law enforcement in other areas. Some may
be retired law enforcement or, current reserve or auxiliary officers,
so their training and professionalism is key when you have a large
group of people. They help keep people calm and cool, and keep
incidents from escalating."

There were 10,000 ticket-holding attendants at Shambhala last weekend
with more than 1,000 additional staff, volunteers, and musicians.

"Shambhala Music Festival maintains an excellent and professional
working relationship with the police established through 14 years of
safe festival planning," said Shambhala production manager Corrine
Zawaduk.

"Shambhala continues to champion safe festival celebrations, and will
continue to cooperate with local and regional police with timely
information and cooperation. The festival's goal is to set safety
benchmarks for festivals in Canada," she said.

Zawaduk said that there are 350 festival staff on shift at any time
during the festival including licensed security, emergency responders,
and traffic controlers.

"It's been a really great year," she said. "The atmosphere was very
positive and relatively calm. The stages and artwork turned out
beautifully, we had a great crew of volunteers and staff. We couldn't
have asked for a better weekend."

Shambhala was voted best large festival in the world at the annual
Breakspoll Awards in London, England in March.